21 Things That Highly Abundant People Do Differently-Part 1

“In the beginning there was only abundance”- the Upanishads, ancient Indian text

What is abundance?

Is it a lot of material wealth and plenty? Is it an abundance of skills and abilities?

Perhaps abundance begins with thoughts, feelings and actions. We may all have different ideas about what abundance means to us.

It could mean anything from material, physical, mental, emotional, relational or spiritual abundance.

We all have spells in our life when things look like they are going great. But then, you lose the magic touch. Your abundance seems to have dried off. You do not feel lucky anymore, let alone feeling a sense of plenty. 

Have you ever wondered what highly abundant people do differently? How do abundant people think?

What is the source of seemingly limitless abundance and plenty?

What makes some people always look at, believe and take the side of scarcity and lack? And what makes some people have an overwhelming amount of plenty in many areas in their life?

By any means, none of the following ideas are for judging the scarcity mindset or the lack and limitations that we all may face. Most of us have experienced debilitating limitations and lack and scarcity at some point of our lives or another. The intention of this post is to shine light on some of the automatic and forgotten scarcity habits, beliefs and thinking that we may be participating in.

I believe that abundance is our natural order and way and it is best to claim it in our lives. Who wants to live in lack and limitation when it is possible to live in abundance?

This is Part-1 on the 2-part series on abundance. 

Lets get started:

1. I am “Good Enough” and I Deserve Better

“Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.”
– Maxwell Maltz

Abundant people think highly of themselves. They have an internal meter that guides their self-worth and esteem to avoid situations that belittle them.

They usually do not question their self-esteem below the threshold of “I am good enough.” Abundant people have the same fears and doubts as people with scarcity thinking. But they do not allow the fears and doubts to question and overcome their self-worth.

Abundant people also have an effective habit that distinguishes them form scarcity thinkers. They think, feel, believe and act towards the idea that “they deserve better.” This does not come from an entitlement mentality. Instead this comes from a deep-seated belief of plenty and an abundant mindset.

Anyone can think from this magnificent viewpoint of abundance and plenty. It means recalibrating the mindset to see the inherent value that we all have and express it out to the world.

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”
– Lucille Ball

2. A Deep Sense of Self-Efficacy or Belief in Their Abilities

“In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, to struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.”- Albert Bandura

Highly abundant people have a deep visceral sense and belief of who they are as a person and their abilities.

Self-efficacy is the power of a person’s belief in their abilities to finish tasks and complete goals. Self-efficacy was first described in detail by one of the greatest psychologists of our time, Albert Bandura.

People with an abundant mindset believe:

• They have what it takes to do a task.
• They have the skills and capacity to drive change.
• They can and should reach a goal and that it is a matter of time and effort.
• If someone else can do it, so can they.
• They can achieve the impossible with effort, learning and action. 

Having a scarcity mentality burdens the person with a ever-shifting sense of lack of efficacy. Scarcity makes us more mindful of doubt, tension and inability to reach goals.

“Self-belief does not necessarily ensure success, but self-disbelief assuredly spawns failure.” -Albert Bandura, Self-efficacy: The exercise of control, 1997.

3. Being Responsible for Their Own Feelings and Unhooking from the Mental States of Others

“You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”
– Louise L. Hay

Abundant people realize that they have some say and control in choosing and managing their own feelings. They also realize through experience that being responsible and taking ownership of their feelings and choices is the best way to come to peace with them. Read a post about taking ownership of your choices in Kelli Cooper’s blog.

An abundance mindset also makes us aware to not get caught up in the negative mental states and emotions of others. Negative mental states make it a challenge to maintain the mindset of abundance. It is not surprising that getting swept away in the moods and emotions of others takes away from our creativity and our abundance.

The key distinction is the rumination or staying with the negative emotions of others. Ask yourself if you are getting caught up with negative states and then feeling bad and switching over to a scarcity mindset.

Let me give you an example. You are happy and in a great mood. You feel great and you want to tackle that tough project. Then your friend comes along and hooks you into a discussion that you would rather avoid. You make the transition to not feeling great. You get swept away by other people’s strong emotions and feelings and this is no exception.

This is exactly the place where you need to listen but not get carried away with negativity. Often, if you do not resist strongly or offer opinions, your friend gets done with their complaining and feels better. Make sure you come out of that interaction with your emotions and feelings intact and like the way you design them to be. Make sure that your feelings are back where you were at before the interaction.

“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” ― Thích Nhất Hạnh, Stepping into Freedom

4. There is Plenty To Get Around

“There is a lie that acts like a virus within the mind of humanity. And that lie is, ‘There’s not enough good to go around. There’s lack and there’s limitation and there’s just not enough. The truth is that there’s more than enough good to go around. There is more than enough creative ideas. There is more than enough power. There is more than enough love. There’s more than enough joy. All of this begins to come through a mind that is aware of its own infinite nature. There is enough for everyone. If you believe it, if you can see it, if you act from it, it will show up for you. That’s the truth.” – Michael Bernard Beckwith

Abundant people have the philosophy that there is plenty to get around. They do not make assumptions and do not argue for their limitations.

Instead of arguing for their limitations, they actively seek opportunities and more abundance. They do not look at a situation and say that there is too much competition here. They look at situation differently by asking how can they add their unique spin and perspective to bring fresh air to an old problem.

Look at the example of the relatively new pizza company Blaze. They entered an already crowded and high competitive pizza market. They did not think that it was impossible to get a foothold in the already busy field.

Instead, they decided to reinvent the customer experience and the way we look at pizza. They decided to fast fire pizza and allowed customers to select their own toppings. It is fun to see your toppings being added right in front of you. Customers feel involvement in the process and receive a pizza within minutes. And they do not seem to have a lack of happy customers.

“Expect your every need to be met. Expect the answer to every problem, expect abundance on every level.”-Eileen Caddy

5. Abundance does not Conflict with Spiritual Goals

“It’s not enough to know or even write about abundance, you must be abundance, you must live abundance.” – Sandy Forster

Abundant people do not have cognitive dissonance or conflicting ideas about abundance and spirituality.

They do not secretly hold an idea that getting abundant, wealthy and successful makes them less spiritual.

Abundant people do not feel that material acquisition goes against the grain of spiritual goals and aspirations.

We have all heard the negative messages associated with wealth and abundance:

• Spiritually inclined people are not wealthy or well off.
• They do not need abundance because they have an austere life.

Abundance is a lot more than material wealth and acquiring things. Still, we cannot seperate or ignore the physical manifestation of abundance.

6. Addicted to Feeling, Thinking and Acting Abundant And Feeling Great

“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards, they try to have more things or more money in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are then do what you need to do in order to have what you want. ”― Margaret Young

Highly abundant people are addicted to feeling great. They have understood that feeling bad and stressed out does not serve them. They are willing to put in the work and time to understand their rhythms and beliefs.

They are willing to work on their beliefs till they get favorable results.

You may have heard and rolled your eyes at “fake it till you make it.” But abundant people understand that they have to be and feel abundant first.

They understand that they need to feel, think and then act the part of abundance for it to manifest in their lives. It is true that we cannot do much with a defeatist attitude that focuses on lack and limitation.

The mantras that abundant people follow:

• I am abundance
• I am wealth
• I am plenty
• I am awesome
• I am happy

They take charge now so that they can reap benefits later.
Abundant people live with the idea that they need to “be, do and have” and not “have, do and be.”

7. Give More As a Habit

“Be generous! Give to those you love; give to those who love you; give to the fortunate; give to the unfortunate – yes, give especially to those you don’t want to give. You will receive abundance for your giving. The more you give, the more you will have!” – W Clement Stone

Abundant people are always giving. They give freely and unconditionally. They offer their time, their smile and even give monetary assistance to others if possible.

Abundant people have understood the amazing feeling and the power of giving. While they do not give to get something back, the act of giving intrinsically enriches their life.

In fact, research studies have pointed to the happiness boost received by prosocial spending and giving.

It is almost like giving opens the doors of the universe for them to have more. Abundant people do not give without a consideration though. They make sure that they have enough before giving away. They know that depletion of their mental, physical, emotional and monetary accounts will not benefit anyone.

I remember the story of a group of monks in India living in the mountains from Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith’s work on abundance.

When the villagers in the foothills experienced scarcity, the monks would descend to the village to beg for food and items. It was not that the monks needed anything but their move forced the villagers to give something to them.

In India when a monk came knocking on the door, they were not allowed to go away empty handed. The villagers would share food and other things with the monks and that act of giving raised their own levels of abundance consciousness. The village would soon get beyond the scarcity and lack period.

8. The Power Of Engagement

“When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” – Lao Tzu

Abundant people believe that it is a good idea to engage with the problem and make an attempt. They do not allow a defeatist attitude to take over. Of course, they also develop the intuition to cut their losses and move on when required.

They listen to feedback and suggestions and then go do the thing that feels correct for them. Then they put in all their effort and skills in making that a success.

Scarcity mentality gives the attitude of what ever I am going to do, I will lose and not amount to anything.

9. Resolve Limiting beliefs

“Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.” 
-Wayne Dyer

Abundant people also go through the muddy waters of severely limiting beliefs. While going through the beliefs, they attempt to get beyond them. We may all have some limiting beliefs or another about abundance. If we have a scarcity and lack mindset, we feel powerless to change these beliefs.

If we adopt an abundance attitude, we will make an effort to become aware of these beliefs and try to get beyond them. We will actively challenge such limiting beliefs and replace them for something more favorable. We feel empowered and abundant.

Habit research has shown that the best way to change a deep-rooted habit is to replace it with something favorable. 

What are some of the limiting beliefs:

• Money does not grow on trees.
• Money is dirty.
• The filthily rich…
• Being rich means trampling over a lot of people.
• Abundance is for people who have a lot of time.
• It is impossible to get ahead.
• I feel angry and it is someone else’s fault that I am not abundant.
• I can never be happy no matter what I do or try.
• If I receive more, others will experience lack. 

The key is to replace limiting beliefs with a new one that speaks to plenty and abundance and not to scarcity and lack. What are your beliefs about wealth and abundance. 

10. Belief in Learning and Growth and Not Fixedness

“Life is a field of unlimited possibilities.”- Deepak Chopra

Abundant people believe in continual learning. If they are good, that want to become better. They approach life like it is a big learning experience. They understand the value of having “the beginners” mind and never miss an opportunity to learn.

Abundant people also believe in implementing the ideas that they have learnt and not hoarding them for the future.

Having and cultivating a mindset of plenty allows us to explore beyond the fixedness of ideas in our life. We are willing to look beyond the standard paradigm to mine for valuable ideas.

Abundance also means keeping our eyes open to change and allowing feedback and failure to teach us something new.

11. Control their anxiety around Success and Abundance

“Anxiety’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far.” ― Jodi Picoult, Sing You Home

Abundant people do not panic when they receive success and abundance.
Like Marianne Willimason says: It is not only our inadequacy that scares us, it is our light. Many people get anxious and fearful around great abundance because it is a state that is relatively new to them.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” ― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”

Abundant people strive to become free of debilitating anxiety and crippling fear. A reduction in anxiety allows better decisions when it concerns money and abundance.

When they feel stressed with success and feeling abundant, they do the work to uncover the real reasons why they are anxious.
They realize that the real reasons of anxiety with success may have nothing to do with them.

They understand that they have just run into an ancient conditioning of safety and security to stay in the zone of comfort. Self-awareness, meditation and other practices make abundant people better deal with stress.

This is the end of part-1. Please stay tuned for part-2!

Now over to you!

Which idea resonated with you and why?

Please let me know in the comments below if you have any tip to enhance abundance!